Fields severely beat 16-year-old Blake Sanchez in a school bathroom. Fields said he thought he heard Sanchez use a racial slur. Witnesses said Fields stomped on Sanchez's head several times, leaving the teen with serious injuries.

Fields entered a blind guilty plea in August 2011. Judge Bass was originally supposed to sentence Fields on November 4, but sentencing was delayed three times because the judge said he wasn't sure what to do with the "ticking time bomb."